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felixroqu3

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 5, 2012
649
685
New York, NY
In preparation for the new iPhone, I’m wondering if I should restore from my backup or if I should just start fresh and set it up as new.

What do you recommend?
 
I have a reset problem. I'll always reset to new and will install apps as I need them. I don't like having backups and recovering from those because I'll feel the phone will just be cluttered again after I do a fresh start.
 
I like to set up as new, nice and fresh. Even if I restore from backup, I still would have to comb through the settings for all the new settings/features of the new phone anyway.

Plus, setting up as new lets me audit the settings - I always hold the old phone in one hand and the new one in the other hand and go through setting by setting and match them...and so often I find that rogue settings get changed - for example, Game Center keeps turning itself on every so often in iCloud, and I have to turn it back off.
 
I've always set up from backup over wifi/iCloud with zero problems, but I know that when a phone is acting funky, one of the suggestions the techs give at the Apple Store is to reset & set up as new, not using a backup. So a backup can be corrupt.
 
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I've always restored from a backup of my previous phone. I've never experienced any problems doing this, and my new device is set up just how I want it right off the bat.
I’m wondering how I would do this since I’m currently on 13.1 beta 2.
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I like to set up as new, nice and fresh. Even if I restore from backup, I still would have to comb through the settings for all the new settings/features of the new phone anyway.

Plus, setting up as new lets me audit the settings - I always hold the old phone in one hand and the new one in the other hand and go through setting by setting and match them...and so often I find that rogue settings get changed - for example, Game Center keeps turning itself on every so often in iCloud, and I have to turn it back off.
This is true! I’m constantly toggling Game Center Off. I might go this route.
[doublepost=1567988302][/doublepost]I’m a little paranoid about setting it as new because I have a 6pm flight to Japan on the 20th *who knows it might not even release that day* With setting everything to my liking, syncing music/photos/apps, organizing everything, enabling e-sim etc it’ll be very time consuming. Especially the photos since I have over 7,000. But I think it might be best to set it as new.
 
I set up as new and just restore call log, contacts, pictures, text messages, music, and ringtones. I redownload the apps that I have saved in iCloud.
iCloud backups isn’t really a full backup, right? It just restores your settings, contacts, and apps?
 
I need Game Center on. It saves all of your progress. And your game ID in every game. It doesn’t use any resources at all.
 
iCloud backups isn’t really a full backup, right? It just restores your settings, contacts, and apps?

What more is there?

I think that iTunes backup more and is a full backup. Not 100% sure about wether iCloud is a full backup or not.

I used to use iTunes backups but in recent years have switched fully to iCloud. I haven't noticed any difference. Everything seems to be restored from an iCloud backup.
 
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I think that iTunes backup more and is a full backup. Not 100% sure about wether iCloud is a full backup or not.
No, not quite.

Whether iTunes or iCloud, since iOS 9 apps are not backed up. App data is, but your device will re-download your apps. All it keeps is a list of those apps you have installed.

For the record, I always restore from backup. I have the same profile today that I had on a 3GS with iOS 5.

However, I'm usually jailbroken so I follow a specific process. Backup, DFU upgrade as new, then restore from the backup.

I've never had any issues or corruption.
 
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iCloud backup has worked very well for me. I used to set up as new, but I realized after a while that I was setting up my new phone exactly like my old, so I went to restoring from backup, and it’s worked beautifully. I haven’t had any issues with problems being transferred to the new device, but YMMV. I've had to reenter my passwords for apps, but iOS remembers and fills in most of them after checking FaceID, so it's been pretty easy.

I don't use iCloud Photo Library, so I have to sync my photos from iTunes, and it takes a while, but I do that overnight.
 
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Hello there

I am interested also by this topic. Is it possible to transfer only the Notes and start from fresh when migrating to a new iPhone?
 
Oh, but as of iOS 12, I think, you can transfer that info directly from your previous device during setup.
How so?
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Hello there

I am interested also by this topic. Is it possible to transfer only the Notes and start from fresh when migrating to a new iPhone?
I think you can do this by only leaving the Notes toggled on
 

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Can app restores download over cellular or do you have to be connected to WiFi?
 
I have been restoring from backup for 10 years now and I do think there is residual detritus building up.
Example: for some reason my iCloud Photo Library was always stuck around 20GB when using iCloud Photo Library and “optimize iPhone storage” options. This strangled my 64GB iPhone.
My first ever clean install has sorted this out!
 
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You know, I've never used iTunes. So never tried backing up and restoring from it. Does an encrypted iTunes backup restore all settings? (including passwords, Wallet credit cards, health info, etc/) If so, I might try that next time.

I think under the 12.4 update, you can directly transfer apps/info from one iPhone to another. Though I don't know how to get the new iPhone to 12.4 to start that process.

I've used the restore from iCloud before several times. It seems to work pretty well, provided you have a decent fast WiFi connection. You do have to log into your app's once again. And you have to set up your Wallet credit cards again. But it seems to work without any major issues.
 
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